THE WEAK PLACE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
Six, I had during the Jubilee Procession a conversation with an extremely intelligent sergeant in a regiment of the Guards, which bears out the contention in your article on the " weak place " in our national defence in the Spectator of June 26th. My friend was one of those lining the street near Westminster Bridge, and had fallen out of line to help some fainting women. I was trying to do the same, so we exchanged ideas on many subjects. As the Australian con- tingent passed he told me that to him the most remarkable fact about it was that some nine-tenths of the men had been in the English Army, but had for one cause or another been let slip out of it. Just as he was saying this a band near by struck up "Auld Lang Syne," and the people burst into a perfect roar of applause.
My friend went on to tell me some of the ways in which the authorities did not make it worth a man's while to look upon a soldier's life as a career. He spoke with no bitterness, and he evidently cared very much for the Army and for his country. After a short term of service a soldier is bound to retire, with (I think) 6d. a day pension for five years, during which time he is liable to be called upon for service, under certain circumstances ; after this he absolutely ceases to have any connection with the Army. It was nearly 3 p.m. when we were talking ; my friend had been under arms since 7 a.m. " Presently," he said, " I hope to have a cold dinner provided, of not very good meat." His extra pay for the Jubilee was to be la., which he was obliged to spend on a dinner to be held in honour of the great event on one day in the week. What struck me most was his sorrow, not at the details he mentioned, but at the general question that the nation did not make it more worth a man's while to devote the best working years of his life to the service of Queen and country.
My own experience as rector of a large pariah is that retired soldiers are among the very best of our working people, but that they often find it hard to obtain worthy employment, as they were serving in the Army just at the time when their friends and brothers were learning their trades. I believe that an extension of the pension system, with or without the power of calling the pensioners to active service in case of serious danger, would at a comparatively small expense insure greater safety to our Mother-land, and tend to make service in the Army very much more sought after, and that, too, by making it a more honourable career. Surely anything which deepens in the rank-and-file self-respect and gratitude tends to make the Army a better fighting machine and a stronger national defence.—I am, Sir, &c.,
The Rectory, Lambeth, S.E. J. ANDEEWES REEVE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I have to confess to being one of those you describe as " befooled by a secret but passionate desire for conscription." As such I can hardly hope for any attention, but I will desperately venture to ask on what grounds you rest the statement that conscription "would be the costliest and most dangerous of expedients"? My contention is that a con- script army quite strong enough to make our second line of defence impregnable would cost much less than our present Army, which every one knows is, in proportion to its strength, the most costly in the world. And when you ask, " Do you want to lie at the mercy of an army, even of our own children ? " my breath is fairly taken away ! For I have always believed that a citizen army is far less dangerous to the liberties of a country than one which by its constitution becomes a kind of caste, and stands apart from the people. Is not the experience of the Continental States during the last half - century entirely in accordance with this view of the matter ? Again, you say that it is an in- herent evil of conscription that " it draws into its net a large proportion of the unable and the un- willing." If this be conceded, it may be said that the evil is counterbalanced by the large proportion of the best manhood which conscription captures ; and you must remember that, when carried out on a comparatively small scale, as it would be in England, conscription would accept none but the thoroughly able. As to the "unwilling," you probably put the proportion of these in the great military States a good deal too low when you suppose it to be only 30 per cent., if by "the unwilling" we are to understand those who cordially detest military service, yet cheerfully accept the law which patriotism imposes on them. Patriotism in this degree is not, it appears, to be expected from our people. You are con- fident that not till they have endured subjugation will they stand conscription. I venture, with great deference, to differ from you. But if you are right, and subjugation should be our fate, we shall deserve it.—I am, Sir, &c., M.
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